Chương 52: Mental State.

30 advance chapters in my Pat.reon. Pat.reon.com/Saintbarbido.

Please gimme 🙏🙏 🙏 🙏🙏🙏🙏 Dem Powerstones.

::----------------------------------------::

(General P.O.V)

Aden blinked his eyes and when he opened them, they were completely glowing white. The enthralled Marvel stopped in his tracks.

"Interesting, analysing data."

The God Equation beeped. As a response to his words, an energy field extended a few inches from Aden's body before disappearing. The boy turned his eyes to stare at the machine. A blank soulless gaze that left The intelligent mechanic life wary for the first time.

"Impossible. How did you suddenly counter my analysis? That field of energy should not have the capability to block out my scans!"

Aden stood up and looked around at where he was. His vision ran over everything and a firm determined gaze appeared on his blank face. Despite the fact that the real Aden was not aware of any of his actions, the Avatar State employed steps to carry out his last priority. Save the lives of his friends and teammates. To do that, these two had to go. The Avatar state could sense the malevolence inside the Machine but the other one was simply misguided.

The fight would be difficult due to how powerful this opponent was. However, that was in terms of Aden fighting at his base power level. What Aden didn't understand was how deep his conjecture that his powers were completely different from their fictional counterpart was. What he had access to was a completely complex alien entity that was The Avatar of The Elements. All the elements. Take into account the high processing abilities of the Avatar System and you have something which no scope of measurement could classify.

The floor started shaking.

"Kill him!"

Shazam shot off like a bullet, slamming a fist in between Aden's chest. The boy hidden away deep in the psyche of Captain Marvel shouted at himself to stop. To stop his actions. The only thing he had succeeded at was holding back slightly while fighting the team. The best he'd done was stop himself from using his deadlier attacks. But now, an order had come through the control link. An order that Billy Batson could refuse but not Captain Marvel. It was only due to the mystic element in his powers that he was even able to see what he was doing.

Billy closed his eyes while imagining the resulting sprouting blood, eviscerated organs and broken bones that would be left behind once his attack landed. His fist speared through Aden's chest and came out on the other side. A shockwave blew the walls behind Aden to smithereens, sending pieces of earth and crystal debris flying away. A red energy field was revealed.

"You imbecile!"

The Machine shouted in anger.

Billy's attention however was on Aden. The blank white glowing eyes never changed. His hand was still inside his chest but instead of blood, Billy was shocked when Aden's body broke into a liquid form and flowed out of his reach. Shazam was just about to attack, when he found his legs immobile. Looking down, he noticed a crystal like material holding his foot captive. It spread across his body quickly and left the veteran hero encased in its crystalline form. No matter how much strength he employed the material was too strong to blast through.

The Avatar reformed a distance away, standing before The God Equation.

"How? My scans indicate that what you did should be impossible! How did you shift from your biological form to one composed entirely of water?! And how is it possible that you can construct numerous carbon nano-threads strong enough to hold down my enforcer from attacking you?! What are you?"

The God Equation was surprised. None of this was going the way his predictive software had predicted. The boy had pulled out a card that The God Equation couldn't counter against.

"No matter! I still have contingencies in place. If anything happens to…"

With the same blank look as before, The Avatar raised up his hand and when he brought it down, gravity increased around the vicinity of The God Equation.

The ground cratered as the Machine responsible for all their problems was broken down into pieces, keeping in line with Aden's promise to turn it into scrap metal. The Avatar cocked it's head to the side once he noticed a suspicious looking device lying in the middle of the wrecked pieces of metal. He touched the malevolent device and nodded, coming to a decision. This was an opportunity. A wave of energy escaped his body and the Father box was cleansed of any if it's sinister influence, leaving behind a featureless yellow box lying in his hands.

A slight gesture from his hands and a crystal platform rose up from the ground. He placed the Box on the pedestal and the construct withdrew back into the earth. The Avatar turned his attention to his team and calmly flew towards them. The energy fields of the pods holding them captive shut off before his power and a slight static shock woke them all up barring Artemis and Kid Flash.

"Ugh…what happened?"

Miss Martian asked while stumbling up. She sucked in a deep breath and widened her eyes as she remembered the fight with Captain Marvel.

"Superboy! Aqualad! Are you both alright?"

She turned to look for them but her attention was overtaken by Aden who was floating above them all, with white glowing eyes and an expressionless look on his face.

"… Maelstrom?"

She tried to reach out telepathically but hit a wall on his mind. Instantly, Miss Martian felt the mood change. An aura of derision escaped Aden who was now staring down at her like a god about to pass judgement. A heavy feeling settled down upon her body and Miss M found it hard to breathe. A feeling of pain and weakness overcame her as heat increased. Miss Martian groaned while falling to the ground. What…what was happening?

"Miss Martian stand back!"

Robin quickly appeared between the two, his hands raised up in an appeasing gesture.

"She didn't mean to do the mental probe. It wasn't an attack."

The Avatar's gaze did not change but the feeling of heaviness and heat that had been slowly permeating the area eased up somewhat.

"Nobody make any sudden moves.."

Robin ordered. Most of the team barring Wally and Artemis were up.

"What is wrong with him?"

Superboy wondered, his sight on one of his closest friend who was now flying down towards Captain Marvel.

"That is not my secret to share. What I can tell you is that whatever that thing is…we absolutely do not want to antagonize it."

Robin informed them as he searched for a way to leave to place. His gaze landed on the platform the God Equation had been on and noted it's destroyed pieces. Aden had done all this. Immobilized Captain Marvel and destroyed the thing responsible. Batman would have revise his information on their teammate's power level. Dick's investigation on Aden was now even more important than before.

"M'gann are you okay?"

Superboy rubbed the young Martian's back in comfort.

"I'm fine Connor. Aden…his mental state feels so weird. It's like the real one is asleep but still awake. Whatever we're seeing is not an entity taking over his mind. It's an extension of him yet not a split personality."

Aqualad finished checking up on the others and turned to his team.

"We will figure everything out after we've left this place. For now, keep your guard up against Maelstrom. He seems to recognize us but this is a side of him we have never seen before."

Everybody awake nodded.

The Avatar on the other hand brought his hands on Shazam's forehead and placed the other one on his chest. A surge of blue ethereal energy along with flakes of golden power, very similar to Doctor Fate's escaped him and washed over everything present in the room. Robin instantly felt his injuries stop hurting and his mind regained it's clarity. The physical exhaustion that had plagued him disappeared and he shared a brief look with the rest.

Kid Flash and Artemis came to with a groan. Before they could say anything else however, the light of a boom tube covered each and everyone of them and teleported them out. The last glimpse Robin got of the chamber was Aden's raised hand.

The team stumbled out into the Watchtower, greatly surprising Lantern Stewart. He stood down, seconds away from attacking them and brought his fingers to the ear piece.

"Stewart to all teams, we found them. We found the Junior Team."

(Elsewhere)

The footage came to an end when Maelstrom cleansed the Fatherbox, removing Lex's control over it.

"I stand corrected Luthor. This plan was not without it's merit. We might have lost the Fatherbox but we gained something more valuable in the process."

Vandal Savage stated while smiling.

"I agree. Though, I was not expecting this level of power from him. He has been a person of interest to me for quite some time."

"Mmmh."

Vandal hummed.

"With this new information, phase one will need to be revised accordingly. We need to take advantage of this."

"As always my friend, we think alike."

Vandal Savage's words trailed off as he blended into the shadows.

Luthor rose up and walked down the stairs to where T.O. Morrow and his assistant were busy trying to regain control of the device.

"I have some bad news Luthor, I've lost the signal. That can only happen if the device is out of range or if it's been destroyed."

The Professor told the Philanthropist.

"On the contrary doctor, everything worked out splendidly."

Morrow turned to face him and was met with a smile on Lex's face.

"What are you talking about Luthor?"

Lex snapped a finger instead of answering and the door to the lab opened. From the outside, Mercy pushed forward a hospital stretcher into the room, bringing it close to the pair before stopping.

Luthor stepped away and motioned to the Professor.

"A gesture of good will. To let you know that I treat my friends with the utmost appreciation."

Morrow stared at Luthor warily but nonetheless stepped forward and removed the sheet covering the contents of the stretcher. His eyes widened.

"How?"

Lying on the stretcher were the parts of Red Tornado.

Luthor wasn't the one to answer Morrow's question.

"Come on Thomas, if there is one person who can figure out the workings of your creations, it's me obviously."

An elderly gentleman wearing a prison uniform appeared on the holographic projection.

"Anthony. I should have known."

Morrow said. His words lacked their usual mocking tone however.

"Gentlemen, It's time you let go of your past... disagreements and focused on the future. With your software Morrow, Ivo's hardware and my specialized... technology, the future is limitless."

Luthor stated, his words sugary sweet.